Food and beverage spills in and around a kitchen will often present the problems of clean-up and odor control. This is especially true in refrigerators and waste receptacles in kitchens. Many times, a spill or a leak from a food or beverage container in a refrigerator goes unnoticed until the user of the refrigerator desires the item which has been spilled or which has leaked. By the time the item is desired, the spill or leak usually has solidified or has begun to solidify, leaving a hard to remove stain or residue on the refrigerator shelf or drawer. Often, this stain or residue will emit malodorous aromas into the refrigerator. The same is true for food stored in cabinets. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide an effective means for absorbing such spills in refrigerators and cabinets and providing odor control.
Trash receptacles also present problems with liquid clean up. In the case of trash receptacles, a food or beverage containing bottle, can, jar, or resealable package, containing residual food or beverage is often thrown into a trash receptacle. This residual food or beverage content will often leak into the trash container. Most trash receptacles do not have an effective means for controlling leaks or spills of liquid food items. While plastic bags are often used to line a trash receptacle, many times these bags are damaged during installation, use or removal. In the case of a damaged plastic bag, any liquids in the plastic bag may leak into the trash receptacle. These liquids will often solidify or began to solidify leaving a residue, which may emit malodorous aromas. As will be recognized, the same issues are faced with disposal of nonconsumable trash, such as, for example, pet litter. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide an effective liquid absorbing and odor control means in trash receptacles.
In addition, various foods stored in a refrigerator or cabinets often emit strong aromas. For example, aromas from garlic, cheeses, meats and/or spices will often permeate a refrigerator when these food items or dishes containing these food items are stored in a refrigerator, even for a short period of time. Many times, the aroma from one food item will blend with the aroma or flavor of another food item or overpower the aroma or flavor of another food item stored in the refrigerator. Likewise, spices and other food items, such as coffee, will often permeate a cabinet in which these items are stored. This often results in the wasting of food, due to the lost of flavor or appeal of a food item which has been overpowered by the aroma or flavor of another food item.
Many techniques have been employed to reduce this problem over the years. The most frequent technique is to carefully wrap food items, for example with plastic films, prior to storage in the refrigerator or cabinet. However, some odors or aromas from the wrapped food may still escape, due to various reasons, such as, incomplete wrapping, odors too strong to be effectively contained, or damage to the wrapping due to movement of food items in and out of the refrigerator and/or cabinet.
Other techniques used to reduce this problem include placing an open box of baking soda or other odor controlling substance in the refrigerator or cabinet. However, this technique presents the problem of spills of the contents of the open box into the refrigerator or cabinet, which may result in the contamination of food items stored in refrigerators or cabinets. Further, this technique of odor control is not effective in controlling spills or leaks in the refrigerator.
There are several other prior art odor adsorbing devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,604 to Forhetz et al. teaches an odor adsorbing liner that has pouches of odor adsorbing particles between two sheets. The pouches are prepared by stitching the sheets together in a quilt-type fashion. The sheets of material are disclosed as paper or cloth. The product of the '604 patent suffers from the problem that the odor absorbing particles are loose in the pouches and if one of the sheets becomes torn, the particles can be released into the refrigerator or cabinet. Further, the liners are difficult to cut to a specific size for a particular shelf or drawer since the areas containing the loose particles cannot be cut. If these sheets were cut in the pouch area, the loose particles in the pouch would no longer be contained within the pouch area, thereby causing the particles to be removed from the liner, which in turn will reduce the effectiveness of the odor adsorbing liner of the '604 patent.
In a similar manner, JP11-230665 teaches enveloping porous charcoal and carbon fibers with a nonwoven fabric. As with U.S. '604, enveloping of the active components presents the problem of the active particle becoming loose within the refrigerator.
Other prior art methods include placing a pouch of odor adsorbing particles into a device which hangs in a refrigerator shelf. Such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,959 to Bermas and U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,477 to Bermas. The odor adsorbing particles of these patents are sealed within a porous paper or a nonwoven polymeric felt. The device of these patents is effective in controlling odor within a refrigerator and/or cabinet, however, the device does not provide any means of controlling or managing spills which may occur within a refrigerator or cabinet.
In addition to the above-described methods, JP58-79518 discloses a refrigerator freshening device having an odor adsorbing material. The odor adsorbing material is a liquid absorber supported on a porous material. This odor adsorbing material is placed in a gas permeable film, wherein the film is impermeable to liquids. It is necessary for the film to be liquid impermeable since the liquid adsorber of the odor adsorbing material may leak from the device. As is clearly taught by JP '518, nonwoven materials are not suitable to contain the odor adsorber.
Attempts have been made in the art to control odors in containers, such as soiled diaper storage containers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,553 to Pontius discloses a nonwoven liner for a diaper container, wherein the nonwoven liner is impregnated with an odor adsorbing material. This patent, however, does not suggest that the nonwoven material is also capable of absorbing liquids.
Fibrous liquid absorbent pads are known in the art and have widely been used in personal care products, such as diapers, catamenial devices (tampons and sanitary napkins), incontinence pads and the like, to absorb bodily fluids. In recent years, various attempts have been made to impart odor control to these absorbent pads. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,497 to Marcus et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,407 to Yeo et al., EP 0 515 473 to Procter & Gamble Company, EP 0 509 409 to Kimberly Clark Corporation and EP 0 389 015 to Procter & Gamble Company. Included in the methods suggested by these patents is the incorporation of odor adsorbing material in the formed articles. However, none of these patents suggest that a liner for a container, shelf or drawer can be made from these materials.
Further, fibrous absorbent pads have been used in a variety of other uses, such as bed pads (U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,481 to O'Conner), pet pads (U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,930 to Perdelwitz, Jr. et al), infant car seat pads( U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,697 to Perdelwitz, Jr. et al.) and floor covers or floor mats (U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,580 to Rockett et al.). Again, none of these patents suggest using the fibrous absorbent pads as a liner for a container, shelf or drawer.